Transactions

Equistone Partners Europe has acquired a majority stake in Virgin Experience Days, a leading provider of experience gifts, from Inflexion Private Equity.

Inflexion will retain a minority stake and the company’s management team, led by CEO Richard Hurd-Wood, will reinvest in the business. The financial terms of the transaction are undisclosed.

Virgin Experience Days is a leading provider of curated experiences, inspiring gift ideas for customers across the UK and US. Over a million experiences were sold to both consumers and c.1,000 corporate clients last year. The company offers an extensive range of 5,000 experiences, from skydiving to luxury breaks, derived from its network of longstanding relationships with suppliers including Fortnum & Mason, Red Bull Racing and Bletchley Park.

Inflexion completed the buyout of Virgin Experience Days in 2017 through its Enterprise Fund and has supported the company’s growth and expansion into new markets, both organically and by acquisition. Investment in the company’s technology platform has significantly improved the consumer proposition and helped attract new customers, whilst last year’s acquisition of US experience gifting business Cloud 9, now rebranded as Virgin Experience Gifts, has established a platform for growth in the US. Under Equistone’s majority ownership, the company will continue to build on its experience gifting platform and further accelerate the roll-out of the proposition in the US.